British Prime Minister Boris Johnson watches as a nurse administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to Lyn Wheeler at Guy's Hospital, in London, Britain, on Dec. 8, 2020. (Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street/Handout via Xinhua)
It "will take a few months" before vaccine manufacturers are able to produce doses in a "steady routine", said Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England.
LONDON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The coronavirus vaccine supply fluctuations in Britain are likely to continue for "a few months", a senior British health official said Wednesday.
Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, said the recent fall in the number of Britons being vaccinated against COVID-19 each day is down to "supply fluctuations".
It "will take a few months" before vaccine manufacturers are able to produce doses in a "steady routine", he told Sky News.
"Global supply restraints" have also affected Britain's vaccine rollout, he said.
"There are always going to be supply fluctuations," he said. "These are new vaccines, by and large the manufacturers have not made them or anything like them before."
Nearly 18 million people in Britain have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
People wearing face masks walk past the Vaccination Centre at ExCel exhibition centre in London, Britain, Jan. 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that every adult in Britain will be given a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July.
According to Johnson, people aged 50 and over and those with underlying health conditions will now be offered a jab by April 15.
On Monday, Johnson announced his long-anticipated "roadmap" exiting the lockdown.
Schools in England will reopen from March 8 as first part of the four-step plan, which Johnson said was designed to be "cautious but irreversible".
Johnson has said he is "very optimistic" all restrictions on normal life in England will end on June 21.
England is currently under the third national lockdown since outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. ■
